This invention relates to prosthetic heart valves. For the most part, the invention will be illustratively described in the context of a prosthetic aortic valve that can be temporarily collapsed during a portion of the implantation procedure, and that can be subsequently expanded to its full size at the implantation site. The invention is not necessarily limited to this particular type of use, however, and it will be appreciated that various aspects of the invention can be used in other ways and/or in other contexts.
Many people with severe aortic stenosis go untreated because they are not considered to be suitable candidates for aortic valve replacement using the known prostheses and procedures (e.g., open-chest, open-heart surgery). In an attempt to provide ways of treating these patients, collapsible prosthetic valves have been developed for insertion within stenotic aortic valve leaflets in less invasive ways. For example, such less invasive delivery of the prosthetic valve may be via catheter-like, trocar-like, or laparoscopic-type instrumentation. The delivery may be percutaneous (e.g., via vessels of the patient's circulatory system that lead to the aortic valve), or it may be through the wall of the heart (e.g., through the apex of the left ventricle of the heart (i.e., transapically)), etc. It is believed, however, that current designs for prosthetic valves that are to be delivered in ways such as these are in need of improvement with respect to aspects such as (1) long-term durability, (2) the possibility of undesirable impingement on the adjacent mitral valve, (3) paravalvular leakage, etc.